Trust and Poker
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Shadi Smith did not believe in an unbeatable poker champion and would do whatever it took to prove one did not exist. Shadi/Phoenix.


Notes – Done for 15pairings. Set during the poker match shown at the start of the game. Contains lots of spoilers for Turnabouts Trump and Succession, so if you haven't completed the game yet don't read this one.

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No one took their poker quite as seriously as Shadi Smith did.

It would be difficult to say what his friends thought on the subject, because he never stayed in one place long enough to make any, but people he'd played against even once could tell you that he had a strong sense of pride about it. People did not learn about Shadi's past, about where he came from, if he had any family or what his real name – because surely it couldn't be Shadi Smith – was, but they learned how much he loved poker. Almost any back alley club that endorsed the game could tell you that. Except for one.

Despite loving the game Shadi did not claim to be unbeatable at it. He had lost many times, and though he didn't reveal this he placed great trust in those who could defeat him at a game of poker. His master had beaten him when he had first met the man, and that had lighted the spark that Shadi had for the game. If someone lost at poker, and didn't put their full heart into it, then Shadi wanted nothing to do with that person.

It was a brutal point of view that had caused him many problems in the past and might even end up killing him one of these days, but he wasn't to know that.

There was, however, rumour of someone who had become unbeatable at poker. A seven year long winning streak. Shadi didn't believe that for a moment.

At first he ignored these rumours, but wherever he played they would follow. People would talk at great lengths about that man, some of them even claiming that he had beaten them personally. At last Shadi could bear it no longer; he would find this person and prove the rumours to be false. From the conversations of many he learned that he resided at a place called the Borscht Bowl Club, under the role of a piano player, but everyone who went there to meet the champion knew that job was just a front for what he really was.

So Shadi set out to find him, but not to test this man to see if he was trustworthy. No, Shadi's mind was filled with proving that an unbeatable poker player did not exist. He would use any means necessary to do this, planting an experienced con artist who went by the name of Olga Orly into the club a long time beforehand, under the disguise of a waitress. He would prove this man was cheating even it he had to make him cheat.

The move had been expensive, but as Shadi walked into the club on the night he was due to meet the "unbeatable champion" a quick, knowing wink from the woman pretending to be a meek Russian girl made him realise this would be worth it.

What he saw, upon reaching the piano, was someone who he never expected to see.

Shadi had indeed already tested this man, but that was seven years ago.

The scruffy face of Phoenix Wright, complete with a lopsided but friendly smile and clothing that looked as if it had been rejected from a discount store contrasted to the crisp, clean lawyer Shadi had met back then. Back when Shadi himself was going under a different name and a different life. Back when he'd had a daughter.

One who he had left with this man.

As they looked at each other Shadi knew there was no point feigning ignorance. Phoenix would know who he was as much as he knew who Phoenix was, even if they both looked completely different now. He knew he could trust this man – when he had met Phoenix the lawyer had never played poker before, yet he managed to beat Shadi without any problems. Was that the reason why when he had lost his career he chose to play the game professionally?

It would almost seem fated that it would be the case.

The two talked at length before the match, somehow despite everything the conversation was a cheerful one. Or at least Shadi felt it was. The subject of his daughter Trucy of course came up, and while it was a painful one Shadi said what he could to justify his actions. That girl was Phoenix's daughter now, not his own.

But when it came down to it they both knew that Shadi was here for one reason – to play poker. And it was inevitable that as the conversation came to a halt that they would do so.

He saw Olga trying to catch his eye as she cleaned up another table, she seemed confused about what Shadi intended to do. He nodded to her as Phoenix turned to walk down the stairs leading to the room they would play in.

This man might be someone he trusted with his daughter's life, but proving there was no such thing as an unbeatable poker champion was still first on his priorities list. He would attempt to make a fraud of Phoenix if it was the last thing he'd do.

…And the grim gaze of a bespectacled man from the shadows promised him that it would be.


End file.
